Sir Winston Churchill stoutly disapproved when the code-name for the beach on which Canadians would land on the 6th of June, 1944, was to be named “Jelly”, taken from jellyfish. Instead, out of British dignity he picked “Juno” which would comprise the area between Saint-Aubin to Courseulles, on which men would give their lives to retake France.
The invasion of Normandy has been for too long concentrated on the American encampment, not only because of Hollywood, rather somehow it has seeped in the consciousnesses of the modern day individual through general mundane “pop-culture” history. Albeit Operation Overlord was indeed a group effort by the Allied Expeditionary Forces in the grandest sea-to-land invasions in human history, yet too often has the Canadian side of things been overlooked, in too many aspects.
In 1941, in honor of Mackenzie King, Churchill said that “Canada is the linchpin of the English-speaking world”. It is without a doubt that this great honor was endowed by the Prime Minister in order to bolster morale and further commitment by Canada towards the war, yet still he was not so far off in his remark.
Out of all the five beaches in Normandy on that day, the Canadians, particularly the Royal Winnipeg Rifles achieved all of their strategic landing goals, at which the Allied head had planned out meticulously for months leading up to the invasion. What is more impressive however, is that the Queen’s Own Rifles of Canada managed to break the lines and spearhead through Nazi territory getting the farthest out all Allied companies under the prestigious command of Rod Keller, despite the fact that they had landed later than all other expeditionary forces due to ill weather.
The preliminary bombardment of the beach which had commenced an hour before landing, and was strategically enhanced days and weeks before, failed to take out the German defenses which were exceptionally well fortified. Mines were placed in the water as well as on the beach, and numerous Mortars, 75mm, and MG-42’s guarded the beachhead. At precisely, 07:49 the Winnipeg Rifles landed , followed by the Queen Rifles followed .
Initial resistance was fortuitous which led to quick casualties, yet as the 3d Canadian Division was up an running Keller managed to take the beach just after 9 AM, from which the Royal Canadian Artillery quickly landed and took over and began setting up base only in a few hours. Keller bravely managed to take the nearby settlement of Bernières, where German resistance was squandered by the Rifles, where he set up camp by noon from which he would launch his offensive deeper into German territory.
Around 2 pm Keller made a decisive breakthrough towards his next objective, Elm, where the plan was to meet up with the rest of the regiments and battalions, in one continuous front. However, both Rifles as well as other salient companies met heavy resistance along the way which led to numerous casualties.
By nightfall, around 9pm, the 3d Canadian Infantry Division had reached Elm after hours of resistance, but fell short of their final objective only a few miles away. A few days later the Army would meet up with British and later American forces to create one continuous front that began to move East. The invasion that day resulted in 340 dead, and hundreds of wounded.
The massive success of the Canadians that day however has been heavily disputed by historians. Regardless of the fact that the weather which slowed the landing boats down, and relative ineffectiveness of bombardment had on the beach in weakening German defenses, the Canadians managed to push through propitiously.
It was in fact a number of things which of course played an essential role Canadian’s performance at D-Day. Out of all the Allied armies Canadians began training for the invasion the earliest, in fact since the beginning months of 1943. Another historian argues that the age of the men on Juno Beach, on average was much higher- around 30 years old. Some commanding officers had even seen the First World War.
The maturity, and experience of these men definitely played a substantial role in their success, yet I dare say, there was something about them, perhaps something very Canadian that cannot be explained so easily. Perhaps they experienced what their fathers and grandfathers had in the Great War. The same fortuitous tenacity which the men who fought in the trenches of Vimy had transposed on the beaches of Normandy some 20 years later.
Grit and Bravery are the only two words which seem adequate enough to describe June 6th, for the entire Allied Expeditionary Forces, not just the Canadians. Yet, Juno Beach holds a special place amid the annals of Canadian history, as a time when together with the other English-Speaking-peoples, men who had never left Canada had ventured to free Europe from collectivist/statist evil.
